June 24, 2013

Hello baby Riley!

A fortnight ago, we were delighted to welcome into the world the newest addition to our family: Riley Jack. Our second son, a little brother for Daniel, and a whole new chapter in the story of our life... Oh what adventures we will share little Riley! What fun we will have together!

Just like his brother before him, Riley will no doubt be an Instagram baby, his whole life captured in tiny square photographs, and shared daily with family, friends and strangers alike. Already, he even has a signature Instagram filter: Sierra (Daniel's was definitely Earlybird).

And already, I have a new project to work on: 365 Days - our first year with Riley, a book that entails a photo collage of Instagram photos taken each day for a year (anything from a single photo to a 4x4 collage of 16 photos), starting from the very day Riley was born.

Allow me to share his first 7 days in pictures (only 358 more to go!...):

Day 001: The very beginning...from bump to birth to bringing him home to meet his brother. A busy day indeed ;)

Day 002: Sleeping, feeding, sleeping, meeting family, sleeping...

Day 003: Meeting more family. Our first long drive, out to Nanny & Poppy's house. Raining, raining, raining - good weather for snuggling up on the couch and watching movies.

Day 004: First day at home with big brother Daniel. The house is now a WHOLE lot noisier...

Day 005: Mummy is not feeling well. We are all quite tired. The whole family is napping together.

Day 006: Practically spend the entire day in bed. Mummy is REALLY unwell today.

Day 007: More of the same really...sleeping and feeding and hanging out around the house. One new milestone though - Riley's first bath.

Oh, ok, I can't resist. One more picture because it was an especially fun day out...

Day 008: Our first adventure out in public together :) To the Gallery of Modern Art, of course! Riley even had on his 'sensible' cardigan, perfect for wandering around the gallery admiring the art.

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The idea for this little photographic documentation project was inspired by a recent purchase I made from Kikki K (I really should try to resist entering that store!), a simple journal titled only with the number 365. As soon as I picked it up, I immediately saw an opportunity to use the 365 journal as a means to turn my Instagram photos into a beautiful hard-copy record of Baby Riley's first year. What an incredible photo album to look back on in years to come!

It's a big project, and it'll be quite a challenge to complete, but I hope that it will inspire me to continue taking photos of all those daily moments that are otherwise so easily lost from memory as the years march on. It's certainly a much greater incentive to keep taking photos when there is a tangible end goal in mind for them. :) And a cute, beautifully-bound, bright red journal filled with happy memories makes for a lovely end goal..!

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Welcome to the world baby Riley! Let's go get started on this new creative journey together...

This album shows some of the artworks I've done over the years, and covers a range of mediums including coloured pencil, charcoal, pastel, oils, watercolour, polymer clay, photography, architectural renderings, and a whole mix of others. 'Mix' is a good word...